The American Forces Radio and Television service touched a lot of people. Whether talent, support or listeners it touched a lot of us in ways that stateside media could only dream of. This website is unofficial and does not imply any endorsement from AFRTS, the Department of Defense or the United States government.
The Microsoft Browsers "Internet Explorer" and "Edge" give errors on the audio links. Please use Chrome or Firefox or Opera if you use Windows.

Thom Whetston

From 1972-97 I was a radio announcer, mostly in the Northeast. I had the most fun with Armed Forces Radio first in Korea then in Panama. A lot of the time it was spontaneous or improvised and that made for a great learning laboratory. The network DJs, Charlie Tuna, Wolfman, Kris Erik Stevens, Jim Pewter, LaRita Shelby and the rest were so consistent, it was and amazing thing to hear. Then to Massachusetts and WEIM, WKNE, WKBK, WFGL, WMDK, WKBR, WCGY, WSRS, WGAW. Most of them don't exist as anything that resembles a radio station. I'm always ready to trade war stories... Thom Whetston afrts@live.com 612-356-AFRS (612)356-2377

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Jim Pewter - 1981

Come and get your memories. Jim's back again with another great half hour. Starts with the original version of a song made huge by the Beatles. Jim was one of us and it shows up on every show. They don't make music like this anymore. No one ever presented it better.

Don Browne has more: All AFRTS radio programming records are spotty, but Jim Pewter is more complicated.

Jim Pewter started his AFRTS-LA career in January 1967, presumably with #1M in flight RU 27-7. His "oldies" specialty show was initially 5-25:00 and lasted about two years. About March 1969, just in time for my arrival at FEN, Tokyo, JP, Jim Pewter was demoted to once a week at 1-55:00. I made a note of it in my FEN log when I reviewed show #366, RU 41-9 in April 1969. The Jim Pewter Show 1-55:00 lasted for about seven years (364 weeks)!

Then at the start of the Bicentennial Year, the Jim Pewter Show was promoted to 5-30:00 with (approximately) #752M in flight RU 1-76 (the first transitional quarter) in January 1976. Because of the long period of one-per-week, the numbering system was in complete disarray. For five-per-week, Mondays, which normally started with xxx1 followed by Mondays as xxx6, instead started with Mondays as xxx2 followed by Mondays as xxx7.

If Jim Pewter continued his 5-30:00 "oldies" show through the transition to Unistar/SMN satellite programming in October 1995, his final cassette-delivered program would have been (about) #5961F in flight RC 52-5, December 1995.